2017- Here we go again.

     Man alive and screaming pagan prayers, that was a year and then some, wasn't it? Personal joys aside- and I know that a good number of the people who read this had some decidedly joyous personals- just a whole lot of steaming piles got plopped in our collective yard, and the neighbor responsible passed us nothing but a limp, flabby, orange shovel that's a lot better at flinging than picking up. But oh, poor neighbor, the day will come, and very soon, when you too shall see how much fuller the notorious swamp is, and with exactly what.
     One hopes, at that point, people will understand that overflowing and emptying are not the same thing. Although, one has also studied history a little, and so does not quite dare expect.
     But enough about that year, and its utterly awful day to day inflictions. Surely, the incoming year will be insanely better, yes? It's not like we're going to get another "Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice", is it? Surely there isn't another Macklemore album on the way already? It's not like we can lose Alan Rickman and Gene Wilder again, right?
     Boy howdy, did those two hit me hard.
     So we made it, and we managed to dig a few diamonds of this coal mine, didn't we? We got another good "Star Wars" movie. A few of my favorite people procreated, which means the next generation of human beings isn't a total loss for all of us. And, perhaps most important and impressive, after all those steaming piles got plopped, and the dust (if we are so optimistic as to believe it was merely dust) settled, a whole group, a huge group, emerged, a group that, as one who has studied history a little can and does dare to expect, will prove insurmountable in its insistence that decency, peace, and unity are better tools than discord, enmity, and prejudice. This group got just as loud and just as bold as its opposition, and it did so with more grace and aplomb. Much like a mother who won't stop hugging her child until it has no choice but to cease its unoriginal and baseless tantrum about foreigners and long lost greatness.
     As long as this group can keep its temper under control. That's going to be the hard part for this year, as well as the three following. There are going to be a lot of things that happen in the near and not so near future, and they are going drive this group to what will be, for the younger members anyway, brand new heights of frustration and bewilderment. Many of them will find it extremely difficult to restrain themselves from screaming bloody murder at those responsible, as they smugly stand around blaming previous job holders and claiming religious authority as justification for their selfishness and ignorance.
     It is going to be a constant and difficult challenge to keep their feet where they must be, firmly planted in reason and resolve, to not give in to that deep, cavernous, possibly bottomless temptation to slap the ever loving hell out of those smug faces who are just doing "what they believe is right," even though all wisdom points to the contrary.
     Lucky for them, one other thing is going to change this year, and hopefully it'll help:
     I will be here, in this space, oh so much more than I was in 2016, and I think it's a fair bet that I'm going to be oh, just so very pissed off.
     You see, friends and neighbors, there is documented proof (most of it created and presented by me) that shows me to be, let's say, disinclined to keeping my temper when the people of the world behave in thoughtless or relentlessly selfish ways. Ask anyone who's been a passenger in a vehicle I was driving, or stood in line with me at a coffee shop when someone spends five stupid minutes figuring out what to order when they should've been THINKING ABOUT THAT WHILE THEY WERE IN LINE, INSTEAD OF TALKING ALL LOUD ON THEIR GOD FORSAKEN PHONE ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED ON WHATEVER HOUSEWIVES OF WHEREVER LAST NIGHT!! I SWEAR TO-
     See? Not so good at keeping the temper in check. So I tend to stay out of the big lights, and off of the big stages, but when you feel that little black ball of frustrated rage start to harden in your abdomen (right in that spot between your liver and stomach; you know the one, just under your ribs), come on by, and I'll do my level best to turn that dense little beast on its head, treat you to a joke or two, and remind you you're not alone.
     As a wonderful and wise and breakfast food obsessed and fictional woman once wrote, "Find your team, and get to work."
-John